The STEAM and Sustainability Initiative, in collaboration with Open Maricopa, is offering a Creator Fest centered around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal

The STEAM and Sustainability initiative brings together faculty that are passionate about sustainability in an effort to revitalize the impactful sustainability education using frameworks like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Faculty are provided networking opportunities to share best practices and develop innovative pedagogy that addresses the environmental, economic and social challenges facing our society. 

The 2022 STEAM and Sustainability Fellows Creator Fest was designed to expand awareness of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Goal #6, Clean Water and Sanitation.  Through the creator fest, faculty are expected to work collaboratively to create interdisciplinary STEAM content and assignments (all of which carry a Creative Commons license) to support teaching and learning of United Nations Sustainable Goal #6, Clean Water and Sanitation.

Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) on water and sanitation provides the blueprint for ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Clean water and sanitation is a core of sustainable development since it underpins poverty reduction, economic growth and environmental sustainability (UN SDG Goal #6 

). Both at the global scale and the local scale in Arizona, climate change and consumption have created severe droughts and water shortages.  According to the UN SDGs, today, 2.2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water, and more than 4.2 billion people lack safely managed sanitation. Climate change is exacerbating the situation, with increasing disasters such as floods and droughts. Antonio Guterrer, UN Secretary General, stated that “40% of the world’s people are affected by water scarcity; 80% of wastewater is discharged untreated into the environment, and more than 90% of disasters are water related.”

The time is now for us, as educators, to create sustainably relevant curricula from a social, economic and environmental perspective to energize our students to create change in water conservation and sanitation. Open education resources (OER) will be used to create the sustainably relevant modules on clean water and sanitation. 

Each fellow will work collaboratively and across disciplines to develop a module on clean water and sanitation that includes: 

• Develop 2 interdisciplinary assignments and assessment tools/ rubrics

• Cultivate and curate existing OER content in 2 or more disciplines to develop interdisciplinary content (approximately 750- 3000 words) to support the interdisciplinary assignments developed through the program.

 The entire module (assignments, interdisciplinary content, assessment tools/rubrics)  will be implemented in the respective classes of each fellow during Spring 2023. A timeline of deliverables  is provided. Fellows will be expected to present their proposed module prior to their deployment. 

2022 STEAM Creator Fest Fellows: 

• Brigitte Bavousett 

• Demelash Areda

• Inhye Peterson

• Jill Bittinger

• Joseph Benesh

• Michael Bryant

• Roxan Alexander-Arntson

2022 STEAM Creator Fest Faciliators: 

• Dr. Pushpa Ramakrishna

• Dr. Lisa Young

• Dr. Diane Chardon

• Dr. Debbie Baker  

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.